My name is Elaine Alva; I interned at Oak Crest two consecutive summers under the supervision of Manjula Gunawardana. In Summer of 2014 the Citrus College SRE program placed me at Oak Crest, where I worked on the Plasmodium and Natural Products project (Alex Montes and Paul Priego guided me throughout this project. Ranelle Buck, Lace Cotingkeh, and I assisted others with projects in our spare time). Many thanks to you for taking time to teach me how to make blood smears; I really appreciate all of your help! In Summer of 2015 I contacted Oak Crest independently and assisted with bacterial growth curves and gas chromatography for the Solvent Tolerance project (Sam Khalsa and Yurianna Hou worked with me under the supervision of Nayeli Guzman).
Since I was last at Oak Crest, I transferred to Cal Poly Pomona and graduated in December of 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, minoring in Chemistry. I also received my Phlebotomy certification and have since been working various part-time jobs as I apply to Physician Assistant programs. I have just finished my first round of applications and am eager to see what the future will bring!
I look fondly back at my time at Oak Crest: I am so grateful for the opportunity to be mentored by such incredible people. I feel that the variety of skills I gained from Oak Crest helped me to be a better student at Cal Poly Pomona and a stronger applicant to physician assistant programs.
Thank you for taking the time to reach out.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elaine-alva-610/